The oil and gas industry needs to focus its time and attention on innovation to secure the sector’s future, believes the chairman of a new technology centre.
The Oil and Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC), which launched last week, will work closely with 12 Scottish universities and more than 2,300 small and medium enterprises to develop ideas and funding for technology projects which will help extend the operational life of the UK Continental Shelf.
“I think there is a great opportunity for us collectively to improve and house the amount of research and development we do in the oil and gas industry”, the centre’s chairman, Paul de Leeuw, told Energy Voice.
“We have a huge gap of funding in the area and I really want to make sure that with the Innovation Centre we can increase innovation and development funding but can also dramatically reduce the time it takes from a good idea to start to when it actually happens.
“It could take anywhere more than eight years and I really want to halve that.”
The Aberdeen-based centre has received more than £10million funding from the Scottish Funding Council, and is supported by the Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise.
Watch our interview with Paul de Leeuw below:
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